People

A picture of a tearful
Sir Simon Rattle, will soon be appearing in bus shelters across the nation. It's not because of something disobliging said by the musicians of the Berlin Philharmonic, where the curly-haired Liverpudlian is principal conductor, but to advertise auditions for Britain's National Youth Orchestra - the slightly obscure, lachrymose point being that Rattle is distressed because at 52 he's no longer young enough to qualify for membership of the NYO. The orchestra has always confined itself to sending notices of auditions to selected schools and music colleges but this year, thanks to sponsorship, the poster is going up at Adshel sites near schools as well. More than 600 youngsters audition each autumn for places, but the orchestra is concerned that it is not gaining the attention of all who qualify: under 18 and with grade 8 distinction standard in an instrument.

The Cass sculpture charitable foundation in Goodwood, West Sussex, is celebrating the biggest single purchase of its artworks, following a recent visit by Jose Berardo, a Portuguese billionaire, who bought eight modern sculptures. The monumental works will go on display next month outside the parliament in Lisbon. Berardo's purchases included works by Lynn Chadwick, Peter Burke - his Register is made up of 2,000 cast-iron copies of the artist's hand - and a bronze by Tony Cragg. The bill is not being disclosed but Cragg's work alone goes for more than $600,000 (£305,000) these days.

If Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, feels battered by criticism, he can perhaps seek consolation in what was said confidentially about one of his predecessors, Geoffrey Fisher - the man who crowned the Queen - to prime minister Winston Churchill before his controversial appointment in 1945. A document unearthed by historian Winston Churchill shows serious reservations about Fisher, a notorious flogger when he was headmaster of Repton and a deeply conservative figure. An adviser warned the PM that Fisher had "no great power of leadership and ... little imagination ... without long-term vision [who] might well lead the church into trouble." Churchill appointed him anyway.

Al Gore may have been instructing Sir Alex Ferguson on climate change in Cambridge this week, but back home it seems his message remains all too contentious. His hopes of staging Live Earth concerts in the grounds of the Capitol in Washington are being stymied by opposition from a Republican senator, James Inhofe of Oklahoma, on the grounds that partisan political events are not allowed in the vicinity. It may be no coincidence that Inhofe is a global warming sceptic, describing it as "the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people".